While we were in Delhi this time during our crazy and epic drive, me and sister thought we should also may be drive out with the family for a day, someone mentioned the new Yamuna expressway and the plan was freezed in like two seconds, yes we are mad enough to get excited about being on road after 2500kms+ 3 drive too…

The expressway starts from Greater Noida and has only one entry, we stay in Rohini and thats like the other end of the town and it took us about 1.5 hours that too at 7:30 am in the morning just to reach the expressway start but we were able to find it pretty easily thanks to my most treasured thing when driving. Yes you guessed it right I am talking about google maps 😉 How I love that app on my phone and one of the reasons I haven’t upgraded my phone to iOS6 is because I will lose google maps…but as usual I digress..

Once we were on the expressway, it was delight through and through. Cemented 3 (infact I think 3 and half) lane roads, barricaded on both sides. We were constantly cruising at 150. At one point of time, hubby even mentioned this is so smooth and good, I am almost getting bored. The only sad thing about the roads was the fact that they were so deserted. I mean I think we saw just 50 cars on an almost 150km+ expressway. Ofcourse we weren’t complaining on the lack of traffic but we were worried that if its not used, it won’t be maintained well in the longer run.

What I also liked about the expressway is the fact that after every toll plaza (and there are three of them) there is a pit stop, a small quick eating joint and very clean loos, there is a janitor always standing there who cleans it just after u use. Hopefully this will continue as the usuage of the expressway increases too. We had breakfast on one such pit stop, took bread pakoras, veg puff and stuffed kulchas and eat it on the car along with hot tea

That’s my mum, younger sister and O enjoying our breakfast

After the quick breakfast stop, I took over the wheel from N and enjoyed the drive till Agra and I tend to agree with him after the 3 days of drive this did feel boring essentially because it was so smooth 😉 Like he says we needed a better car, a car that can take us to 200kmph may be and give that trip (Warning : The whole road is cemented and not tarred and there is a greater risk of tyre bursting which can be a huge risk at high speeds. Please use caution while speeding. We have all terrain tyres in our car which we fill with Nitrogen and hence the risk is lower)

We made it to the outskirts of Agra City including the breakfast break in under 2 hours after entering the expressway. What happened after we entered the city is another story though. My heart pains to say that roads of Agra are narrow, broken and dirty which is such a contrast from expressway that it hits you right into your face 😐 After traversing through those lanes and struggling with directions (yes google maps came to rescue again), Can u beat it there are not many sign boards guiding to Taj? It’s supposed to be a wonder of the world I thought, we did reach Taj Mahal parking somehow. The child saw the camel cart there and wanted to take a ride in one of those. So from parking to Taj was done in that and we all had fun like a child

When we reached the ticket counter, I was ready for another shock. No one wanted to follow queues, garbage was strewn all around. It was shocking to see that this was the state of affairs just outside Taj, one of India’s most important and popular tourist destination. It made me realize that why do all people have the image of India that they do. People were eating chips, throwing packet on the road when there is a dustbin right next to it and the security guards standing there will say nothing too. Food isn’t allowed to be taken inside the monument and its stated on a lot of boards but people were still taking it and there was a huge bunch of discarded things lying next to the entrance because of that which includes discarded melted ice cream, imagine the mess it would make. Taj is a monument of pride for me, for me visiting it fills me with joy and happiness that its in India, I wonder why do people not feel the same?

The minute you enter the premise the scene changes though and what you witness is impeccable lawns, clean and tidy and oh so gorgeous. When you look at Taj, even with so many people around you know there is indeed something special about it

Borrowing my friend Tara’s words to describe this picture – the lilliputian crowd, the bird in flight and the blue color

Unfortunately I couldn’t get around clicking pictures as I would have wanted, too many people, tried parents and a hungry and cranky child aren’t things that can let you pursue a hobby 🙂 So we exited Taj after a quick round of the monument.

One of the four side forts surrounding the Taj

After seeing Taj we headed for lunch to Ram Babu Paranthas (read the post linked here on the food blog for delicious Agra food tales) where we had a yummy lunch, following which we headed to Sadar Bazaar for a little shopping. After all what trip is complete without having to see what the city offers to its shoppers 😉 We picked up a bag, some footwear and so as Agra is also famous for its leather. We also visited Meena Bazaar and picked up a gorgeous marble mortar and pestle and some coasters.

Post all this when we saw the time it was already 5:00 pm and hence the plan to visit Fatehpuri Sikri had to be ditched 😦 and we started our journey back which was largely uneventful and the same kind of drive. We reached back home at 21:28 after clocking 508kms on road.

PS: this is my third post as a part of Marathon Bloggers, we are posting one post a day, Wanna join us ? here is the FB group

We did an epic trip recently (finished it this afternoon) most of u following me on twitter/FB page are aware of it… this is the compilation of tweets of the trip… Hopefully will do a detailed post(s) later. Tweets are in reverse order though 😛 too lazy to do otherwise 😉

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Isn’t that a very catchy number, a number one would like to dance on… and keep on dancing I have been wanting to see this movie since it released and Ritu posted about it but my husband was not interested in watching it so I was wondering to when Wednesday a friend called me in the morning saying would I like to come along with her to watch the movie and I was jumping with joy yes yes yes ofcourse

And what a lovely movie. It was fun, good timepass and well executed but I think what I loved about the movie most was it made me warm inside for Delhi. It made me miss Delhi even more. The movie is soaked in Delhi right from the first scence where they show the metro, the delhi university, the cycle rickshaws, the banta, the bark ka golla…. damn I miss it…

The movie has captured Delhi so well that I don’t think any other movie did atleast the part of Delhi it wanted to capture… the fun loving loud Delhi…. the weddings… sigh I agreee its a waste of money but I can guarantee you there can’t be a wedding which is more fun than the wedding in Delhi…

And this movie made me miss Delhi to an extent that I was found crying on the things that the whole theatre was laughing at Damn I cant’t wait for Feb when I am off to Delhi for a cousin’s wedding no less where we will dancing a lot…. and I am sure Avin Avin will be played a lot

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Some memories are just deep encrusted in ones minds and hearts and one of those memories or a set of memories for me is Delhi Winter. Though its been a little more than 9 years I have moved to Bangalore and started calling it home and slowly loving the city too I sorely miss the Delhi Winters, every December I go into a sad mode when I hear about the winters in Delhi from friends and family.

It reminds me of those early school morning where we would just not be able to get up and dad would be shouting and we just murmring 2 more mins from the warmth of the rajai (quilt)

It reminds me of those lazy lazy afternoons we would spend a dari (rug) spread on the terrace soaking in sun, pretending to study with a book in hand sometimes alone and sometimes chatting with a friend

It reminds me of those times in the winter vacations and sometimes otherwise in the early evenings too when all the aunties of the street will sit together in a corner on a charpai (cot) knitting and exchanging colony gossip and we kids will get a chance to do whatever we wanted to 😉

It reminds me of those lovely evenings and nights when we will all get inside the biggest rajai in the house and eat moongfali (peanuts) endlessly and than we would push each other to get out if anything is needed

It reminds me of those fights we would have when we get into a rajai which has been already warmed by someone else 😉

It reminds of those morning paranthas and pickle breakfasts and steaming hot besan ka seera to end the day with

It reminds me of that yummy gajar ka halwa and the yummier sarsoon ka saag and the pinni made by mom, those gajaks and gur after every meal

It reminds of my of those morning where you would get up on the terrace to see nothing yeah the fog would have created the zero visibility and it reminds me of that hot cup of boost that dad used to make for us on those days

So last week when we in Bangalore woke up to see a fog similar to what used to be DilliKiSardi… ofcourse we were very happy 😀

And seeing Ojas as excited about the fog and enjoying his cup of boost watching it, made me even more nostalgic… I guess its true… memories are for a lifetime

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Last week I was in Delhi and was travelling in an auto after ages, me, my sis, N and ojas… so I got in I kept my handbag in the backside of the auto and took ojas in my lap… in between the travel sometime my phone rang and I started chatting with Sups, the destination came (which was Sarojini Ngr markeet BTW :D) and I walked down with ojas in my lap, phone on my ears and bindaas crossed the road… 2-3 minutes when the conversation ended I realised something is a miss……….. damn I had forgotten my handbag inside the auto…

We turned back crossed the road and tried searching for the auto man everywhere around… but as luck would have have it we couldn’t see him anywhere 😦 Totally frustrated depressed and irritated we went to the near by Police Station to lodge an FIR and give my number to them so that if a kind soul wants to give it back he can… Anyways I would need a FIR to get the duplicates of all those documents

With a heavy heart and no hope of getting the bag back I blocked all my cards and was going to the ATM in the night to withdraw cash from N’s account that will last me the trip… and suddenly my phone rang… And those words are still clear in my head…

I was amazed stunned shocked and elated… I started jumping with joy… 😀 😀 😀

I told him I will come right away and take the bag if its ok with them as I was to travel to Gurgaon the next day morning and he said yes most welcome.

How he tracked me is another story. He searched my bag for any phone number, though he didn’t find my number he did find a friends visiting card and called that friend for my number telling him the whole story. He also said that if he would not have found my number he would have googled me tomorrow morning from office and tried to see if he can find some contact (yeah yeah the blog would have helped then 😉 )

I was so impressed, I can’t even explain…. So off we went in the night to pick up the bag, me N, sis and a niece all happy and decided we will give them a good tip and when I got down from the car to meet them there was another surprise waiting for me… the auto uncle with his son who was carrying his sweet little son in his lap waiting for me on the road with my handbag… and I thanked them for the help and they kept insisting aap ek baar check kar lo please, I told them please uncle aapne wapas kiya bahut badi baat hai… i am sure sab theek hoga… They invited us home for tea and uncle told me that he didnt take a customer after he saw the bag so that any customer doesn’t put a claim to it… he also went back to the market but that was after an hour or so and I think we had left by than 😦

The uncle and his son R were both so warm that in all this me and N felt that tipping them would have been an insult to them if u get what I mean…

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One thing that this seems to have come along with this house for us are the house guests, days after we moved in here and the house was still not looking like a house my mom and sis came from Delhi and helped me make it look like a home… The next 10 days were spent sharing the load of opening boxes, making food and taking care of Ojas like a dream come true… isn’t there something about your mom just being around that makes one feel fantastic 😉 and now that she is gone back… I miss her like crazy… and my sis too and not just me, the little brat has also been missing them and gets up almost every morning saying that I want Appu massi and nani to come to my house…. awww baby I want that too…

This is the worst thing in staying away from ones family… these are times when I want to curse the job and my career which bought me to such far away land… I hate that Ojas is growing up so far from her loving nani and massis but sigh such is the way of life and things can hardly be changed

And then after my mom and sis, went away we had N’s cousin from the US coming and living with us for a day, who fell in love with Ojas and vice versa… both were inseparable till the time he was here and the dotting uncle did all the tasks for him from playing to feeding him food, to change his clothes and even clean the dirty bum 😉 it was such a pleasure to see them bond, right now he has gone to his village with a promise that he will be back next week

And then there is another friend of mine K who I havent met in years coming over for a week with his wife (whom I havent met at all) and a 5-month old daughter on Wednesday morning. Its so long that I have met him and this is one visit I am really really looking forward to, needless to say the next week will be a little busy 🙂

Apart from house guests too there has been a lot happening in life, I have taken up a consulting working from home assigment with a US firm which invloves about 3 hour of work everyday, its a small start but I am slowly making a move from becoming a stay at home mom (which I have been for the last year) to a full time independent woman (as my profile still says 😉 ) again and yes guys my catering and business plans are still on… have delivered some 3 orders and waiting for some more… so spread the word around u….

With all this happening in my life the last thing I needed was an argument with mil which I ended up having this afternoon. There are sometimes when I really feel that all this talk that dil’s are like daughters and mils as mothers is all bullshit. Howmuch ever one tries, how much ever one does (and here I am not talking about only me, I am talking about both sides… so people don’t throw brickbats ok) one still remains an outsider and the things you are still taken with a pinch of salt, even if they are well intended.

I know what happened was not something which will probably stay with us forever, I am in a half a mind to go say sorry or else things will turn normal in a day or two but right now I just feel depressed, angry, agitated and sad all rolled into one.

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